Team Player

When Ray Attiyah, president of the business improvement firm MMS, returned from a trip last year, his office had shrunk. Sure, it was still in the same fourth floor suite of a Deerfield Township office tower. But MMS employees had decided that another one of the staff members needed the roomy corner office for client meetings.

So they gathered Attiyah’s furniture and personal effects and carted them to a smaller interior room down the hall. Problem solved.At other companies, such a switch might not happen with anything less than an act of Congress. But at MMS, making decisions and nimbly implementing solutions is not only acceptable, but expected. Attityah runs his own company the way he wants to help others run theirs: By empowering all employees to be part of the company’s success — whether or not the boss is around.“No one person can create a culture,” Attiyah says. With that in mind, MMS shows companies how to be efficient and poised for growth by focusing on the team: Training managers to solicit input and inspire others, and teaching employees to communicate, solve problems, and recreate success.